Friday, April 29, 2011

Our good friend Tesfaye recently convinced me to grow potatoes in old tires on the side of my house. Have you ever heard of this? Apparently, as they grow you stack up more tires... I'm not really sure. Since Tesfaye is a gardener, I seem to take his word without questioning it. So, between the rest of our garden and our chickens (did I tell you we got 3 more?), I don't think we'll be going hungry any time soon. Have any of you ever grown potatoes? Have you ever heard of growing them in old tires? I'll keep you posted on how it goes...

Thursday, April 28, 2011

For Easter this year I made each family a little garden box full of herbs planted in these vintage boxes I picked up at the flea market. I sent the Chicago Burches all the fixings in the mail, but put together everyone else's to give to them on Easter. I lined the bottom of each box with some kind of moss-something-or-another from Baker Nursery (sorry, I can't seem to remember what it was called, but the wonderful folks at Baker will surely know what you need...).

Then I simply filled each box with dirt and planted all the herbs side by side...

I think they turned out so sweet and everyone seemed so excited about them. Don't you think this would be the best present to give someone as a housewarming gift? I know I would love it...

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Last week while I was in California, I spent a good amount of time collecting driftwood on the beach. I brought an entire basket home and decided it would be fun to make boats out of the different pieces. After making two one evening for myself, I thought it would be a fun project for all the kids to get involved in, so I set up a table in the backyard on Easter with all the supplies and everyone had a wonderful time making them. And, I must say, I think they all turned out amazing.

I gathered sticks from my yard to use as the masts for the boats and drilled holes into the driftwood, so it would be easy to stick the mast right in and secure with a little glue.

Everyone cut out their own sail template based on the size of their driftwood and mast and then cut the sail from any of the fabric scraps I brought out for them to use. Everyone embellished theirs differently with fabric, trim, stamps, etc. We twisted eye hooks into the mast and sewed the sail to these little hooks. And there you have it. An easy, lovely and highly satisfying craft project.

And, I must add, they look awfully cute sitting around the house...

It was a great outdoor project that the kids from 3 year old Finn to 13 year old Peter and all the way up to the adults, all seemed to enjoy.

Peter certainly got the most creative with his. He even gave it a test drive in the pool and it stayed perfectly afloat...

Let us know if you try one of your own! We would love to see how they turn out!

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

So, I decided to take one more day off after all the lovely/hectic activities of the weekend (and totally cleaned out my craft room... my idea of a relaxing day), but now I am back with lots to share. For today I will just leave you with a few snippets of my weekend, but stay tuned for a little how-to of the above sailboats (which all the kids made on Sunday) and the below garden boxes (my Easter gifts to all the families).

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday, beginning the day with Mass and then having all the grandkids over (except our Chicago Burches, who we missed terribly!) for an exceptional feast, egg hunt and swimming. It was a beautiful day and I felt so very blessed to be surrounded by so much family! Hope you all had a lovely weekend!

Some of the eggs this year were confetti eggs, which the kids had so much fun breaking over each others heads. Ruby loved it so much that when she ran out of confetti eggs, she tried to break hard boiled eggs over people's heads...

Oh, and as we were all lying around the grass playing games and relaxing, a little visitor decided to try and slither his way into our festivities... yikes!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

With our beloved Chestnut Lane gone, I was so glad to see something else open up in that charming little spot on Camelback. I stopped in to Carmel's last week and love how they have taken the space and made it their own. It is the perfect neighborhood coffee spot - exactly what we need more of in Phoenix. Forget your starbucks, folks. Get out and support your local coffee shops (I've said it before and I'll keep on saying it, support your locals!). Carmel's serves Cartel Coffee (ahh, reminds me of Palatte...), they have delicious pastries (oh, the apple pie!) and are planning to add to the menu here and there. I met the owner when I stopped in and was trying to convince him that they should stay open late as an after dinner dessert and drinks spot... wouldn't that be the greatest? Anyway, everyone should stop in and check them out! Tell them we sent you!

Oh, and it's named after his mother. How sweet is that?

Well, I am planning to take tomorrow and the weekend off to relax with my family and prepare for Easter, so I will see you back here Monday! Hope everyone has a joyous and wonderful Easter!

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